Tim Mouradian photographed a lost sailboat in Swampscott today.

John McLachlan captured this tennis player at the height of the storm in Peters Park.

People came out to see the damage when a large tree came down on Union Park in the South End around 1:30 p.m.. Photo by Marija Strazdas, who says:

Very sad, it was a lovely tree.

The reporters standing on the water side of the sea walls, that is:

The scene outside our Roslindale house around 11:10 a.m.

Orchard Beach in Squantum this morning, by radiogreg1.

Nobody braving Carson Beach Sunday morning. Photo by Lauren Sommer.

Irene, Saturday morning. Source: NASA GOES.

The National Hurricane Center reported at 5 a.m. that Irene weakened overnight but that it still expects the storm to be at hurricane force when it lands on Connecticut and that it will have a large "wind field" as it moves inland. Since it'll be going across western and central Massachusetts, that means they'll get more rain, but we'll get more wind here in the Boston area.

BUT WAIT: Shortly after 8 a.m., Pete Bouchard tweeted:

With Irene ashore in North Carolina, New England dodges a bullet. No landfalling hurricane here.

Bouchard writes we can still expect high winds, lots of rain, downed trees and power lines. On air this morning, he was preceded by an anchorperson who promoted an upcoming feature on hurricane winds with some video of a reporter on a beach:

Standing on the beach, so you don't have to.